Susan Taylor Research Physical Scientist Cold Regions Research aand Engineering Laboratory

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Overview of Research:

My work draws on my academic training in geology, with research emphases in microscopy and chemical analyses of terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials. Coupling microscopic observations of a material with other analyzes often provides insight into how a material behaves and how it was formed. I like using a multidisciplinary approach to solving problems and am part of research teams studying detonation residues from Army training ranges, comet samples returned by the Stardust space mission and micrometeorites that I collected from the South Pole drinking water well. I have worked at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) since January 1987.

Journal Publications

Taylor S, G. Matrajt J. H. Lever, D. Joswiak and D. Brownlee (2007) Size distribution of Antarctic Micrometeorites , in Dust i n Planetary Systems (ed. H. Krüger, and A. Graps) ESA Publications, SP-643, 145-149 .

Walsh M.E., C.A. Ramsey, S. Taylor, A.D. Hewitt, K. Bjella, and C.M. Collins  (2007)  Subsampling Variance for 2,4-DNT in Firing Point Soils.  Soil and Sediment Contamination: an International Journal, 16, 459-472.

Taylor S., G. F. Herzog and J.S. Delaney (2007) Crumbs from the crust of Vesta: Achondritic cosmic spherules from the South Pole water well, Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences, 42, 223-233.

Brownlee D.E. and others (2006) Comet 81P/Wild 2 Under a Microscope, Science 314, 1711-1716.

Flynn G. and others (2006) Elemental Compositions of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Samples Collected by Stardust, Science 314, 1731-1735.

Taylor S., E. Campbell, L. Perovich, J. Lever and J. Pennington (2006), Characteristics of Composition B Particles from Blow-in-Place Detonations, Chemosphere 65, 1405-1413.

Matrajt, G., Y. Guan, L. Leshin, S. Taylor, M. Genge, D. Joswiak and D. Brownlee (2006) Oxygen isotope measurements of individual unmelted Antarctic micrometeorites, Geochimica et Cosmochemica Acta 70, 4007-4018.

Lever J., Taylor S., L. Perovich, K. Bjella and B. Packer (2005), Dissolution of Composition B Residuals, Environmental Science and Technology, 39, 8803-8811.

Taylor S., C. M. O’D. Alexander , J. Delaney , P. Ma, G. F. Herzog and C. Engrand (2005) Isotopic fractionation of iron, potassium, and oxygen in stony cosmic spherules: implications for heating histories and sources, Geochimica et Cosmochemica Acta, 69, 2647-2662.

Matrajt, G., S. Pizzarello, S. Taylor and D. Brownlee (2004) Concentration and variability of the AIB amino acid in polar micrometeorites: implications for the exogenous delivery of amino acids to the primitive Earth, Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences, 39, 1849-1858.

Taylor S., A. Hewitt, J. Lever, C. Hayes, L. Perovich, P. Thorne and C. Daghlian (2004), TNT particle size distributions from detonated 155-mm howitzer rounds, Chemosphere, 55, 357-367.

Matrajt G., S. Taylor, G. Flynn, D.E. Brownlee, and D. Joswiak (2003), A nuclear microprobe study of the distribution and concentration of carbon and nitrogen in Murchison and Tagish Lake meteorites, Antarctic micrometeorites, and IDPS: Implications for astrobiology, Meteoritics and Planetary Science , 38 (11), 1585-1600.

Taylor S., X. Feng, M. Williams and J. McNamera (2002), How isotopic fractionation of snowmelt affects hydrograph separation, Hydrological Processes16, 3683-3690.

Taylor S., X. Feng, C. Renshaw, and J. Kirchner (2002), Isotopic Evolution of Snowmelt: II, Parameterization using laboratory experiments. Water Resources Research, 38, paper36 p1-8.

Alexander C.M.O’D, S. Taylor, J.S. Delaney, P. Ma and G.F. Herzog (2002), Mass-dependant fractionation of Mg, Si, and Fe isotopes in five stony micrometeorites, Geochimica et Cosmochemica Acta, 66, 173-183.

Taylor S., X. Feng, J. Kirchner, R. Osterhuber, B. Klaue, and C. Renshaw (2001), Isotopic evolution of a seasonal snowpack and its melt, Water Resources Research, 37, 759-769.

Taylor S., J.H. Lever and R.P. Harvey (2000), Numbers, types and compositions of an unbiased collection of cosmic spherules, Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences, 35, 651-666.

Taylor S., J.H. Lever and R.P. Harvey (1998). Accretion rate of cosmic spherules measured at the South Pole, Nature, 392, 899-903.